BOE yet to investigate questionable office hours

The Lucas County Board of Elections has not investigated its former director, more than a month after a Toledo Free Press investigation revealed that the official had charged the county for at least 66 questionable hours.

Former board member Jim Ruvolo expressed interest in questioning former Director Ben Roberts’ records after the story broke in early January, but he resigned from the board Jan. 20. Although two meetings have taken place since the story’s release without mention of an investigation, this is not a dead issue, Ruvolo said.

“It’s still an issue and it’s an issue the board needs to look at,” Ruvolo said.

Former board member Rita Clark said she wants the board to start investigating Roberts’ records.

“That’s taxpayers’ money that was being misused. If someone was misusing my money, I would want to know why and where it went,” Clark said. “It is my money, really, when it comes right down to it.”

Ruvulo said he didn’t bring up the subject at his last meeting because the agenda was too packed with other controversial matters. Now isn’t exactly the easiest time either, he said, because of the March 6 primary and the board reorganization in the beginning of March that mandates the consideration of a new director and deputy director. After the dust settles from that, he said, he plans to discuss Roberts’ “activities or lack thereof” with board member Ron Rothenbuhler.

But Rothenbuhler said, “It’s not on my list; he’s gone. We can’t even get a consistent group to deal with the processes we have.”

Within the past year, Rothenbuhler said, he has seen a director and deputy director fired, one director resign and two board members resign. And during the Feb. 14 meeting, Republicans Jon Stainbrook and Tony DeGidio voted to oust Deputy Director Dan DeAngelis. Their effort was met with Rothenbuhler and new board member Keila Cosme’s opposition.

Rothenbuhler said until the elections board shows some direction toward a productive end, he wouldn’t want to dig up old problems.

The honor system

Rothenbuhler and DeAngelis asserted the board needs a more accurate system of charting who enters and leaves the office and other election locations, such as the warehouse. Employees do not have to swipe cards when they enter or leave any election board site.

“In a way, it’s the honor system,” DeAngelis said.

Anyone who enters One Government Center on weekends, however, must sign in at the security desk. The Toledo Free Press investigation compared the front desk logs with Roberts’ recorded work hours and found that he had not signed in on any weekend that he reported working. The total added up to $3,103.98 worth of charges to the county. Rothenbuhler said he and the Lucas County commissioners have discussed a more rigorous sign-in policy for months. But the biggest barrier is funding — establishing a computerized system to record employee presence would be costly, although Lucas County Administrator Peter Ujvagi did not have an exact figure. DeAngelis said that the Roberts investigation did not prompt the idea but Ruvolo said the questions surrounding Roberts’ presence at work pushed the subject to the forefront. Rothenbuhler sees a clock-in system as a logical step.

“We keep identifying potential problems,” Rothenbuhler said. “Why not do what every other employer does? You’ve got people working at [factories] and they don’t get in and out of the gate without checking in. Why are we not doing that for the people who work for the county?”

DeAngelis and Clark kept personal logs charting when Roberts entered and left the office. The days on which they both kept records corresponded with each other and indicated that Roberts did not show up on days he logged hours.

Roberts’ response

Roberts told Toledo Free Press that he worked “tirelessly” — sometimes putting in 80 hours a week — to complete all of his tasks as director. He said he worked outside the office often when communicating with board members and the secretary of state’s office, compiling research, studying the best practices of election law and meeting with media. No policy from the secretary of state or the county’s employee manual dictates whether directors must work within the office.

But Clark and DeAngelis said that working from home is not feasible because so much of the job description includes working with the deputy director and managing the staff. Roberts resigned from his position in the beginning of December, writing in his departure letter that rigid partisanship kept him from making positive changes and running an efficient elections board. The four board members have yet to agree on a replacement for Roberts but will have to reorganize in the beginning of March because of state mandates.

Clark resigned in August after six years on the board, shortly after Roberts took the director position. She said conditions within the office had turned volatile, with every day becoming a “dreadful experience.” Disturbed by a number of her interactions with Roberts, Clark reported to the secretary of state’s office that he wasn’t performing his job properly and that he was seldom present. However, the duty of investigating such matters falls to the board.

Many controversies

Questions surrounding the former director’s time sheets are just one of the many controversies facing the board. Stainbrook motioned to fire two employees, Dennis Lange and Kelly Mettler, this summer. The board tied on the vote, so the secretary of state’s office broke the tie and ruled in Stainbrook’s favor. Lange and Mettler later filed a lawsuit against the board, asserting that Stainbrook fired them in retaliation for investigating Republican committee members who might have committed voter fraud to elect Stainbrook party chair. Most board meeting votes end in a party-line tie. The meetings typically escalate to heated altercations and eye-rolling among board members and sighs or hushed laughter from the public attending.

“Its very difficult to get anything done,” Rothenbuhler said.

The office is also under investigation by the FBI for unauthorized email usage among staff members.

Clark said at least 10 or 12 people have approached her and told her they’ve lost trust in the Lucas County elections process.

“I heard a lot of people tell me that they’re not even going to vote; they don’t want anything to do with that office,” she said. “It just makes me sick to hear and see what has transpired since I left.”

Pounds: Husted watching

The chaos and dysfunction at the Lucas County Board of Elections have inspired Toledo Free Press to use this space to ask for oversight from Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted. Husted may or may not heed our request, but a Jan. 6 letter he sent to the BOE illustrates he is paying close attention.

In his letter, he addresses three requests to break ties on votes the BOE could not decide for itself. Can there be any other county in Ohio that requires as much SOS attention as Lucas County? Husted declined to break ties in two cases — votes on allowing Republican staff member Meghan Gallagher to act equally with BOE Deputy Director Dan DeAngelis and a no-confidence vote on DeAngelis — because “The Lucas County Board of Elections did not timely send to the Secretary of State either the minutes of the December 13, 2011 meeting or the board members’ position statements related to the December 13 tie votes.”

Apparently, even when the BOE asks for Husted’s help, it can’t meet procedure or demonstrate competency. Husted lightly chastised the BOE, writing, “the Lucas County Board of Elections must assume complete and total responsibility for oversight of the operations and the duties assigned to them. The Board must carry out its statutory duties and resolve these problems rather than relying on the Secretary of State to oversee the staff at the Lucas County Board of Elections.”

Husted did break the tie on the third vote, on whether to certify the candidacy of Constantine Stamos, because, “None of the declarations of candidacy and part-petitions filed with the Lucas County Board of Elections included the candidate’s original signature as required … there is simply no tangible evidence to certify the candidate for the ballot.”

Husted then gets a bit tougher.

“The more troubling information provided in the board members’ position statements was the assertion that the staff is not competent to perform even the most routine function of accepting candidate petitions,” he wrote. “Furthermore, let me remind the members of the Lucas County Board of Elections, it is their responsibility, and theirs alone, to remedy the continuing issues of staff competency and workplace environment. Hopefully, a timely solution will prevent this office from the need to take separate action.”

Last week, Toledo Free Press reported that former BOE Director Ben Roberts may have logged more than 65 hours of weekend work time but may not have been present during the hours he claimed. We strongly urge the BOE to place an investigative query on its February agenda, not just to ascertain any wrongdoing in this case but to ensure that all BOE employees are aware of policies for claiming hours that cost taxpayer money.

It is somewhat comforting to know that Husted is watching the mess that is the BOE. We look forward to a day when his oversight is not required any more here than it is for other Ohio counties.

And we bet he does, too.

Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him at tpounds@toledofreepress.com.

This editorial was co-authored by Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller. Contact him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Former BOE director logged questionable hours

Ben Roberts, the former director of the Lucas County Board of Elections, recorded that he worked eight hours the weekend of Aug. 6 and eight hours the next weekend.

He recorded that he worked four hours the weekend of Sept. 17 and two on Sept. 25. A few hours one weekend, a few the next. By the time he resigned in early December, the weekend total from July to December added up to 66 hours. That’s $3,103.98 worth of work on an $85,594 annual salary for 35-hour workweeks.

But he wasn’t in the office.

Building officials confirmed that One Government Center security policy requires everyone who enters the building on weekends to sign in. Toledo Free Press examined the sign-in logs but could not find Roberts’ name recorded on any Saturday or Sunday he reported working.

“The reality is that he was not here much,” Deputy Director Dan DeAngelis said. “I got tired of playing the game ‘find the missing director’ because it was a game I had to play often and rarely won.”

Roberts told Toledo Free Press that he worked tirelessly ­— sometimes 80 hours a week — communicating with board members, communicating with the secretary of state’s office, compiling research, studying the best practices of election law and meeting with media.

“With that job, I got up early and I stayed up late,” he said. “There are a lot of things I do on the weekends in which I could be working but not at that building.”

DeAngelis said he does a little work at home — such as making a few phone calls or reading over documents — but that he only claims his hours when he is at the office.

A Toledo Free Press review showed DeAngelis recorded working four weekend days and signed the building security logs for all of those days.

Two logs recorded by two board employees suggest there might have been more hours Roberts was absent.

Rita Clark, who resigned this summer after six years on the board, asked employees to document Roberts’ hours. She had stopped in to meet with the director in the mornings only to find him absent.

The two employee logs are not comprehensive, but the dates in which both tracked Roberts’ activity correspond with each other. On Sept. 30, for example, both employees recorded that Roberts did not show up in the office at all. His time sheets indicate that he worked seven hours that day.

DeAngelis and Clark both said that there is little work to be done outside the office, particularly as the director. Working from home is mostly abnormal, if not impossible, given the duties, Clark said.

“I would be surprised,” DeAngelis said. “I am interested to know what his work product was if he was spending all that time at home doing research for this office.”

There is no policy about working from home in either the secretary of state’s office or the county’s employee manual. However, many portions of the job description involve working together with the deputy director and managing the staff, assuring that employees are meeting responsibilities. Clark questioned how Roberts could fulfill any of these duties if he wasn’t in the office every day from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or later.

“It’s not a typical job,” Roberts said. “I put in many 80-hour weeks that aren’t even recorded on the time sheets.”

The Lucas County Commissioners allocate election board member and employee salaries from the general fund. Generally speaking, the commissioners would not investigate such cases because the jurisdiction falls within the Board of Elections, said the Commissioners’ Chief of Staff Bridgette Kabat.

Democratic Board Member Jim Ruvolo said that if he sees substantial evidence that the time sheets were inaccurate, he would seek the prosecutor’s advice on how to proceed. Ron Rothenbuhler, a Democratic board member, said he could not comment on Roberts’ hours. Republican board member Tony DeGidio referred comments to board member Jon Stainbrook, who did not return a call for comment.

Kabat said there would be no comment from the commissioners’ office regarding Roberts’ hours.

Roberts resigned Dec. 9, writing that rigid partisanship kept him from making positive changes and running an efficient elections board.

Clark resigned about a month after Roberts joined the board. She said the office warped from what was once like a big family to a hostile work environment. She had joined the board in June of 2005 and put voter trust at the forefront, she said.

“You’re working for the people and at the board of elections, you want everything to go smoothly to make those people proud and give them the confidence that yes, their votes are counted,” Clark said. “It’s the taxpayers’ money that is paying your bills and your payroll and you have to live up to that standard.”

No confidence III

The revelation of a whistle-blower suit filed against the Lucas County Board of Elections (BOE), combined with walkouts, drama and continuing stumbles, demands intervention from Ohio State Secretary of State Jon Husted.

Before the September primary and again before the November general election, Toledo Free Press urged Husted to end the chaos and establish stability in our local elections process. It is more clear by the day that the four men charged with operating the BOE are incapable of cooperation. The resignation of Director Ben Roberts, who proved incapable of calming the waters under his command, is another straw on a very weary camel’s back.

The whistle-blower suit filed by fired employees Dennis Lange and Kelly Mettler, which provides evidence of what they claim are at least 10 people involved in election and voter fraud, raises many questions.

Why didn’t the BOE further pursue what appears to be an organized effort to rig an election as current BOE member Jon Stainbrook ran for chairman of the county GOP?

Did the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office investigate the well-documented claims provided by Mettler and Lange in 2008 and 2010?

Why, according to the suit, did Husted’s office say it would not get involved in local personnel matters, then ignore the evidence Mettler and Lange provided and break the tie to fire them?

Stainbrook hinted during a Dec. 13 interview with Toledo Free Press that The Blade has known about the whistle-blower lawsuit but has chosen not to report it. The Blade tried to push away from Stainbrook in a Dec. 13 editorial that uses such descriptions as “inept” and contains the unflattering lines, “There is more to being party chairman than photo opportunities with state and national party dignitaries. … Mr. Stainbrook obviously enjoys the power and perks of being party chairman. But he also has to do the heavy lifting that’s necessary to make Republicans relevant in Lucas County.”

The Blade was a primary force in Stainbrook’s ascent, offering glowing profiles and Stainbrook-slanted news, while behind the scenes Stainbrook reportedly used his relationship with The Blade to threaten people in his grab for power. The Blade can try to distance itself now, but its role in creating the current political chaos must not be excused.

Again, we respectfully ask for and urge Husted to dismantle the BOE’s leadership and force a clean slate that can begin to rebuild confidence as we head into a presidential election year.

To repeat: If the Secretary of State’s office does not increase its oversight and guarantee the BOE can run an efficient and honest election, the resulting lack of confidence and potential legal issues will rest squarely on its shoulders. There will be scandal on a scale that makes the usual local political games look like preschool frolics, and Husted will carry direct responsibility.

If the chaos is allowed to continue, the only vote that will be believed is a resounding vote of no confidence in the process.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.